Another note on parcel deliveries - not Yell but Hermes

Doesn't surprise me that parcels never seem to arrive when you hope they might.
My next door neighbour gets half a truckload of parcels delivered to him five or six days a week from a parcel delivery firm called Hermes. I think they are a bit like Yodel. What surprises me is that they use local delivery bods like him to deliver to the designated addresses. He's just a troll-ish little man with a Nissan Note car (not a white van) and he spends an hour or so every morning with hundreds of parcels splayed across his front garden and driveway, sorting them into streets I suppose. Naturally he never gets them all out the same day - just out of interest I've watched him a couple of times. He piles a load into his garage for delivery another day. Next day, who knows?
Just thought it was an odd way to do home deliveries.
I prefer to use shops myself!

 

I'm always confused about UPS. Who on earth thought a good name for a delivery company would be 'oops?' (I know it's pronounced You Pee Ess, but I can't see it without pronouning is as 'ups' in my mind.

 

Hermes are the nominated carrier for quite a few catalogue companies and they deliver in bulk to couriers who get around £1.50-£2.00 a parcel which works out cheaper than having a big van going round all day

 

Think the way they work is some will be next day which they have to attempt within 24 hour of receiving them and others are 48 maybe standard delivery which could be 3-5 days which then they can deliver when they want

 

I got an e-mail last week confirming that I would be receiving a delivery (can't remember which firm were delivering it) later that afternoon. There was a link in the e-mail which took me to their website so I could track the delivery man. I was delivery number 103 and he was on number 11 for the day. I live in Oxspring and he was down in Silkstone. Anyway, it became addictive, as I was watching him travel round, until half an hour later he seemed to be heading my way. Sure enough, a few minutes later the tracking thingy showed he was just outside my house, so I presumed he was delivering early. I went downstairs to the door and there he was. Except, it wasn't him, it was the regular postman. I was a little confused and checked the website again, which showed he was now heading down to Penistone, so he must have been bringing something to a neighbour. I then watched his path all day as he basically went round in circles, to Millhouse, to the Flouch, to Hoylandswaine, back to Silkstone, back to Penistone, back to Hoylandswaine and so forth. I couldn't help thinking that with a bit better planning he could have saved a fortune in petrol and knocked off at lunchtime.

 

Good grief, I didn't know they got that much per parcel (never speak to him). Surprised he doesn't get himself a proper van instead of stuffing it all into his little car.

 

That'll be DPD I work for them we have to what we call 'optimise' our routes which basically routes itself suppose to be better than laying it out yourself. It works for me but I use to do out in S36 and with the before 10s and 12s it would send you into same village twice maybe even 3 times t'was a nightmare!

 

I don't think it's anything like that, I've heard more in the 45-60 pence range. If it was anything near £2 a parcel I'd quit my job and start doing it.

My mate was in a bit of a pickle job-wise and he looked into it and told me what he'd discovered via internet forums - it seemed the most profit you could expect over a week was in the region of £250 to £300. That's taking into account the fuel, the insurance you need for your van, and presumably insurance for the stuff you are carrying. I doubt that includes any repairs or maintenance your vehicle needs. It's maybe more enticing than a warehouse job but only just, especially as being self-employed there's no sick or holiday pay. My mate reckons the only decent money you can make as a courier is doing short-notice long runs for companies that need things the same day but I suppose that all depends on demand, you could have a really good day earning a couple of hundred quid but then be sat around doing next to nothing for a week.

 

That's where the real money is, never had one myself but I stopped at my mothers while she was on holiday a while back, window cleaner knocked on the door and wanted a tenner! He hadn't been there ten minutes. She might have owed him something from a previous visit, I didn't ask, but even a fiver for ten minutes if you're at it all day in the same area isn't a bad screw, and being cash you can bet hardly any of it is declared.

 

I take home a very decent wage for been a courier and enjoy doing it. Average around 110 stops a day today was 156 because of the new xbox launch.

 

How big of an area do you cover, and how many hours do you work on average?

 

Spent 7 years in retail nice to get outside and as for winter... You soon warm up, I enjoy been out and about run a disco business at weekend too so I'm always on the go started a 6 this morning be home for 1.... Love it!!

 

Ah, it all makes sense now. I never thought about the deliveries that have to be made before a certain time. I just thought you had crazy people in the office working out your routes, whilst the missus thought it was because you were paid by the hour and were stretching it out!

 

Yeah we offer a 1 hour time slot the follow my parcel has just been introduced good for the customer nightmare for us can't nip home for a brew now!

 

Yes, and the missus will be checking if you're spending a bit longer than you should dropping off the delivery to dirty Gertie from number 30!

One of those tracking thingies would have come in handy when we had Jan Molby playing for us. Anyone not at the game could have checked his whereabouts on the internet.

"10 minutes gone, where's Jan now?"
Click, click...
"He's in the centre circle"

"25 minutes in, where is he now?"
Click, click...
"He's in the centre circle"

Repeat ad nauseam...